What is FreeRADIUS used for?

FreeRADIUS is a high-performance multi-protocol policy server supporting RADIUS, DHCP, DNS, TACACS+, and VMPS for centralized network authentication and authorization. It is a good fit for enterprise Wi-Fi authentication with 802.1x, and centralized AAA for VPNs and ISPs.

Is FreeRADIUS open source?

Yes. FreeRADIUS is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at FreeRADIUS/freeradius-server and is written mainly in C.

Yes. FreeRADIUS is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host FreeRADIUS?

Yes. FreeRADIUS can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What are some alternatives to FreeRADIUS?

Similar open-source tools in the Networking & VPN category include Pi-hole, Technitium DNS Server and AdGuard Home. SaaS products in the same category include Akamai, Amazon CloudFront and Amazon Route 53.

Is FreeRADIUS actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to FreeRADIUS was on 2 October 2026. The project has 2.6k stars on GitHub.

FreeRADIUS: open-source networking & VPN

About FreeRADIUS

FreeRADIUS is a highly configurable, high-performance policy server written in C. It supports RADIUS, DHCPv4, DHCPv6, DNS, TACACS+, and VMPS, and is released under the GNU GPLv2. It is widely used to centralize authentication and authorization for networks, which reduces the number of changes needed when users are added or removed.

It can authenticate users for 802.1x Wi-Fi, dial-up, PPPoE, VPNs, VoIP, and many other systems. The topics point to support for EAP, one-time passwords, and AAA functions. Back-end data stores include MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Microsoft Active Directory, Apache Cassandra, and Redis, among others, so it can fit into existing identity infrastructure.

The project is continuously tested, with build status, Coverity analysis, and OSS-Fuzz in its CI badges. FreeRADIUS runs as a daemon on POSIX systems, and suits network engineers, ISPs, universities, and enterprises that operate wireless networks, VPNs, or other access systems and want a mature open-source AAA server.

Key features

RADIUS, DHCP, DNS, TACACS+, and VMPS support
802.1x Wi-Fi, VPN, and PPPoE authentication
EAP and one-time password methods
SQL, LDAP-style, Active Directory, and Redis back ends
Highly configurable policy language
Runs as a daemon on POSIX systems

Good fit for

→Enterprise Wi-Fi authentication with 802.1x
→Centralized AAA for VPNs and ISPs

Built with: C
Tags: radius; aaa; authentication; 802.1x; network; dhcp; tacacs; eap

FreeRADIUS: questions and answers

What is FreeRADIUS used for?: FreeRADIUS is a high-performance multi-protocol policy server supporting RADIUS, DHCP, DNS, TACACS+, and VMPS for centralized network authentication and authorization. It is a good fit for enterprise Wi-Fi authentication with 802.1x, and centralized AAA for VPNs and ISPs.
Is FreeRADIUS open source?: Yes. FreeRADIUS is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at FreeRADIUS/freeradius-server and is written mainly in C.
Is FreeRADIUS free?: Yes. FreeRADIUS is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host FreeRADIUS?: Yes. FreeRADIUS can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What are some alternatives to FreeRADIUS?: Similar open-source tools in the Networking & VPN category include Pi-hole, Technitium DNS Server and AdGuard Home. SaaS products in the same category include Akamai, Amazon CloudFront and Amazon Route 53.
Is FreeRADIUS actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to FreeRADIUS was on 2 October 2026. The project has 2.6k stars on GitHub.